In something of a public climbdown, West Ham have admitted to the error in judgement made when agreeing to release Lucas Fabianski, by working to resign him as a free agent: Wes Foderingham has left the club in pursuit of some real football before retiring.
The former Sheffield United keeper is the only Hammers first team squad goalie never to have let in a goal in a competitive fixture.
For anyone wondering whether the same fate might befall Michail Antonio, it would seem unlikely that the West Ham record goal scorer will be returning to London Stadium in a free signing double with the Pole.
He’s tipped today to achieve a return to competitive football by signing as a free agent, but a little further afield.
“Celtic tipped to sign former Hammers striker for free’ – the title of the article by thecelticbhoys.com tells you all you need to know. Many at West Ham would take the 35 year old back in a heartbeat on a similar pay-as-you-play deal to his bestie Callum Wilson. And nothing is cut and dried yet as the deal for Antonio to move to Celtic is only at the discussion stage. As the report succinctly puts it:
“The question is whether Antonio will be able to get back to the level we know he can reach. If he is able to do that, he would be a great addition to a club like Celtic. But any move would be risky”.
Having seen Michail turn out for the u21’s whilst working to improve his fitness, you’d have to take the emotion out of it and say his time in the Premier League is ‘over’. But with West Ham, you just never can tell.
Antonio has already stated he’s not interested in a pay-as-you-play agreement
Wants his pre accident payment £80,000 per week.
He’s also got his part time job as a pundit lined up.
Time to move on and sign striker/mid attack Marcos Leonardo whose fully fit..
Clueless, no strategy.
Funny how noone else has signed them, I wonder why.
Charity club
To be fair we don’t know how much the injury Antonio sustained has affected his speed, I would assume quite a bit. But as we have no other strikers to go for, it might be beneficial to get him in on a contract but with caveats in case the injury cases him to miss matches. Also, he’s a good character to have around the dressing room, would be an ideal teacher to the younger players in the squad
If you’d watched him play for the u21’s you’d see he’s just a shadow of the former player of a couple of years ago.
Fab is still a good GK and will be a wise addition to the squad . Antonio might have to learn how to put on a kilt .
Fabianski was still performing at top level past season. Great to have him back.
Potter, the guy who stated that he expected there to be a massive rebuild to our ageing squad pre the summer transfer window, will most likely get the blame for this. Whilst the invisible hand of Sully will not be noticed, as he remains out of reach for many.
But hey, Potter didn’t want a young and energetic striker once the window had opened?
At this point, it isn’t only Potter being played!
Happy with Fab coming back, should never had let a keeper of his quality go like they did. Sadly Antonio’s injury really stops him coming back in the premier league for me but in a less competitive league like the Scottish premier league he could be a star!